


Hands Up

by orphan_account



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, Gun Violence, Hostage Situations, bruiseshipping if you squint, but it really doesn't add to the story, i guess?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:21:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22418413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: A day so normal and quiet. Jay never thought that could change so drastically.He took the call, thinking it would be like any other robbery, but is quick to discover this would be an exception.
Kudos: 43





	Hands Up

The voice of Gayle Gossip flowed through the air of small café in New Ninjago City. The small radio was set on the news station, and the only customer was absentmindedly listening to the endless source of bad news. 

Jay was happily enjoying some time for himself. He liked being around other people, he was even known for it, but like a whale, he has to go up for air sometimes. Okay, maybe that’s a bad metaphor, but you get it. 

The ninja were enjoying their rare days off; after all, being protectors is not easy work. Anything could happen at any given moment.   
Jay didn’t even know where the half of his team is at the moment. Kai and Nya were probably spending some sibling bonding time together somewhere. Cole went out too. Now for the others… they were probably at the Bounty. 

Contently scrolling through Ninstagram, Jay sipped his drink: fresh lemonade, sweet but not too sweet, with just enough sour to make it funky. The owner had told him that it was a secret recipe. 

Just as he was beginning to fully relax, his phone went off, signaling a group call.

‘We have a small problem.’ Lloyd’s voice cut through the calm silence of the café. Jay sighed, so much for a day off.  
‘Get to the point.’ Kai interrupted. ‘Some of us have a life Lloyd, so pretty, pretty please just let’s get this over with?’ 

Kai’s playful tone did lift up Jay’s mood a little. He grinned and sat a little straighter. Kai practically set himself up for a joke.   
‘Not sure of what you’re doing can be called having a life, buddy.’ 

He could almost see Kai’s iconic bitchface and Lloyd’s eternal disappointment over the phone.   
The green ninja sighed loudly and started to explain the situation. ‘Well Kai and others, somebody called us because of a robbery across the street. They’re in the alley next to the cinema.’   
That’s like three blocks away from where he was, Jay thought. He could get to it in minutes.   
‘I’ll go.’ He decided. ‘It’s super close to where I am.’ 

Lloyd was silent for a moment. ‘Do you need backup or anything?’   
Jay considered saying no; he could handle some amateur robbers. But if something were to go wrong, would it be nice to have someone with him.   
‘Yeah… If one of you guys could help that would be nice. Just in case I mean. Who knows what could happen.’ He waited anxiously for a response.

‘Alright, I can come.’ Cole’s voice came through. ‘It might take a little while, I’m a bit further away than you are.’  
Nice, he won’t be alone. Jay thanked his friend and ended the call. 

He jumped on his motorcycle and began his short ride to the cinema. Time to go beat up some idiots. 

When he arrived at the scene it was strangely silent. Jay raised an eyebrow. He was pretty sure a robbery lasted longer than the time he spent getting there. Maybe the person who called the ninja was just late to the party. Still, he could at least check if the victim was still in the vicinity, even though he was a bit hesitant. It could be a trap they set up to capture him or worse. A chill ran up his back and Jay shivered visibly.

After he had looked around for a bit and concluded nobody was there Jay decided to call the team.   
Just as he reached in his pocket to grab his phone a deep voice sounded from behind him. 

‘So the blue ninja came to the rescue after all.’ 

Shit. So it was a trap. Jay ran all the possible outcomes in his head frantically. Maybe the person behind him had a weapon, or maybe he had vengestone on him, maybe-  
After a second or two, Jay turned around. In front of him stood a guy, dressed in all gray, not as intimidating as his voice had suggested, and he only had a small knife in his hand. He could take him. He was sure. 

‘What are you trying to do?’ Jay asked the unknown guy. ‘You’ll need something stronger than that knife if you want to-.’

His breath hitched when something hard and cold came in contact with his head, and an arm slithered around his neck, effectively keeping him in place. Jay froze. This was not how it was supposed to go at all. Maybe he could use the thing against his captor. A cocking sound next to his head stopped his thought process in an instant. Okay, maybe it’s not a good idea to mess with that.

Guns were not unheard of in Ninjago, but they weren’t used much either. In fact, Jay couldn’t remember a single time they had to fight someone with a gun. Except for that time when Nadakhan tried to reform Djinjago. But even then the gun wasn’t pointed at him. And technically that whole ordeal didn’t even happen.

More guys came out of the shadows and surrounded him. He didn’t exactly know what to do. And he didn’t like to admit it, but he was kind of scared.   
And unlike a knife or some other blunt weapon, a gun against his head like this could kill him in less than a second. With just a pull of the trigger he would be gone, with just a single bullet. Jay’s mind ran a thousand miles an hour. He couldn’t outrun a bullet. He would never see his friends again, never hear their laughs, and never receive one of Cole’s hugs again. He was completely at the mercy of the gang in front of him. 

‘What do you want from me?’ Jay managed to force out. In response the gun just pushed against his head harder. Jay decided he should just be silent.   
The supposed leader of the gang in front of him spoke up again, this time with a slight smirk plastered on his face.

‘Who knew the brave blue boy would be subdued this easily huh.’ That sentence shouldn’t put so much dread in him, but it did. Jay suppressed a shiver. Being called ‘the brave blue boy’ was not on his list of things he liked. He tried to back up a little, but the guy holding him was not letting him move an inch.

The leader paused for a moment, then laughed. Jay was watching him with fear mixed with curiosity, but dared not to look him straight in the eye.   
‘I could let him kill you right now you know?’ Oh no, bad signs. ‘Or put some vengestone on you and take you with me. You ninjas have been bombarding my plans a lot lately.’   
The Ninjas… Cole! Cole would come here to help him, Jay realized. A spark of hope formed in his chest.   
‘I could get my revenge right now.’ 

Jay was beginning to panic slightly. He had no interest in finding out what the revenge might be.   
‘Damn it, hurry up Cole.’ He muttered under his breath.

And at that moment the roaring sounds of Cole’s motorcycle could be heard in the distance. 

The gang members looked at each other and then all looked at Jay. ‘Make sure he stays put.’ The leader said to the guy holding Jay and moved his knife to his right hand. 

The next moment the blue ninja was kicked in the back of his legs, making him fall onto his knees. Another person grabbed his wrists and tied them together with vengestone-infused rope.   
Jay was ready to cry. He did not want Cole to see him like this: the master of lightning, on his knees in a dirty alleyway with no way of defending himself. And even if he had, he wouldn’t have had the time to change the situation anyway, because Cole’s motorcycle came to a screeching halt right before the alley. 

Jay caught a glimpse of his friend’s shocked face before someone forcefully grabbed his hair and pulled his head back.   
He bit his lip, not being to do anything else but to stare at the sky above. 

This wasn’t what Cole had anticipated to see. He expected to arrive to Jay or the police rounding up the criminals, or to a fight, but certainly not this. The blue ninja was on the ground, and next to him was another man dressed in gray clothes. The man in gray, who he assumed to be the leader, threw him a small smile, as if he didn’t probably hurt his friend just minutes ago. 

Cole moved his gaze to the figure behind Jay and winced. A steady hand was holding a firearm against his friend’s head.   
The head of the gang glanced to where he was looking at and flipped the knife in his hand. 

‘As you can see, your friend is in a bit of a situation.’ He gestured to gun. ‘And in all honestly, I am not planning to let him go unharmed.’   
Cole narrowed his eyes, he opened his mouth to respond but the man continued. ‘Though I am willing to negotiate.’ 

The silence that followed was deafening. The black ninja tried desperately to think of something the gang would want. Money? Vehicles? Or maybe just to leave them alone in the future? It didn’t matter. He would have given them whatever they wanted in return for Jay. The blue ninja wasn’t able to look at Cole, since the grip on his auburn hair had not loosened in the slightest.

‘I could really use some help from the others.’ Cole thought, and then it struck him. The SOS button on his watch! None of the ninja have had to use that function before. Nya once installed it on his and Zane’s watch one time when they had to go for an errand in Stiix. Now was the perfect time to use it. 

He tried to slowly move both his arms behind his back while attempting to think of something to say to buy time.   
‘What do you want from us then?’ He snapped at the leader of the gang. The other man scratched his chin at his question, almost like he had not thought his proposal through. 

Cole grabbed his chance. His fingers found the small button on the side of his watch, pushed it and he felt the small buzz it came with. Luckily it didn’t make a sound. The others better arrive soon. 

Kai was in the middle of a monologue about why watermelon candy was the absolute worst when Nya’s phone went off. They both looked at her phone and then at each other, confused about why that had happened. The phone was not indicating that someone was calling her after all.

Suddenly Nya slapped her hand against her forehead. ‘I completely forgot!’   
Kai looked at her expectantly. She continued. 

‘Like a year ago I installed a speed SOS button on Cole and Zane’s watches, when they went to Stiix, remember?’   
The fire ninja nodded slowly, memories of Cole complaining about the bad atmosphere of the place coming back. Nya didn’t give him the chance to keep up in the slightest. 

‘But that means something happened to one of them. Zane’s at the bounty so I think he’s safe. And Cole is…’  
Something finally clicked in Kai’s mind. ‘Jay and Cole!’ He shouted. Nya was already fumbling with her phone to call Lloyd and the others.   
Kai pulled on her sleeve. ‘Lets go to the Bounty, you can call them on the way there.’ 

When they arrived at the Bounty the rest of the team was already set to go. Zane had made sure the flying ship could fly on full speed to their destination after they’ve had received the quite chaotic phone call. Lloyd hoisted Kai and Nya on board and Zane immediately steered the ship towards Cole and Jay. 

Nobody said a word. 

It was the green ninja who broke the quietness. ‘Anyone knows what happened?’ He was biting his lip, something he did when he was nervous. The others all shook their heads.   
‘I’ve only know the signal went off, but it must be something serious if they couldn’t call us like usual.’ Zane said slowly. 

‘Maybe they were in the middle of a fight?’ Nya asked. No answer. 

The GPS beeped, indicating they were close. Lloyd took a deep breath, attempting to calm himself down. 

‘Zane, can you run a scan down those alleyways? They’re probably in there somewhere.’ 

Zane nodded and stepped out to the deck to do what he was asked. The rest followed him, anxious for what the scan would come up with.   
After a moment Zane turned around, appearing to be a little nauseous. It looked somewhat uncanny, since he was a Nindroid. The others waited for him to say something.

‘According to my scan, Jay is being held prisoner by someone. Another person is standing next to him. A small group of other people is surrounding them, and I think Cole is negotiating. I couldn’t see the faces or equipment of the attackers.’ 

Lloyd clapped his hands together.  
‘Then,’ He concluded ‘we have to be sneaky.’ The leader instinct inside the green ninja took over. He turned towards Zane and Kai. You two, come in from the north side, one of you take out the person holding Jay and the other take out the person next to them. He looked at Nya. ‘You and me are going to make sure nobody else hurts them, and to help keep Cole and Jay safe if necessary.’ 

Lloyd took a step back and went over the faces of his teammates. ‘Make sure they don’t see you coming. Let’s go.’ 

‘We could give you the bounty, and we’ll leave you alone in the future, just please let him go. We’ll all be happy yeah?’ Cole was still talking.

Jay felt like he’s been kneeling for an eternity. It didn’t make the gun or even the little stones that were digging in his knees less real though. He hoped Cole would come up with a plan before the patience of the gang runs out. 

It was a warm day. Jay squinted against the sun, not wanting to close his eyes completely just in case something happens.

‘Stop talking.’ The leader, who still had not revealed his name, cut the still talking black ninja off. 

‘I’ll give you two choices.’ Jay was almost relieved this situation had an end in sight after all. That was until he heard the next words.

‘Either I kill your him, and I promise I’ll make it slow.’ Not a great start, Jay thought. ‘Or you put a bullet through his head yourself, and guarantee a painless end.’ 

No, no! He wasn’t even able to try saying something coherent, and by the noises Cole made, he wasn’t able to either. What the hell did they talk about that led to this? The Leader chuckled, clearly enjoying the reactions his words had triggered. He twirled his knife in his hand.

Jay closed his eyes. So this is the end of the blue ninja, killed in a random alley. Damn it.  
When he opened them again, he could almost see his teammates one more time. A tear rolled down his cheek. 

He didn’t want to believe it, but when his view was blurred like that, the other ninjas almost looked real, just above him, peaking over the roofs of the buildings.   
Jay blinked, and his view was clear again. But the ninja were still there, looking at what was happening below. He frantically tried to make eye contact with Lloyd, trying to let him know to act fast. He saw how the green ninja moved a hand to his ear and whispered something through the intercom. 

The four ninjas disappeared from his sight, and Jay hoped with all his being, that everyone would get out alive. 

Cole was rendered speechless. Jay would die in both options, it wouldn’t matter what he’ll chose. He glanced at Jay again. The man behind him was still clutching his hair, making him look up. But there were tears on the face of his friend, along with what looked like solemn acceptance. He swore under his breath. Where were the rest of the ninjas? He directed his attention to the leader once again.

‘Is- is there a- any other option?’ His voice was shaking. He couldn’t let Jay die. He would rather die himself. He could feel the satisfaction of the man in gray growing with every agonizing second. He was about to offer himself in exchange for Jay went he felt his watch buzz against his wrist. 

‘Now!’ The next second was chaos. A big wave of water smacked half of the gang members against the walls. Nya and Lloyd hopped off the roof and immediately began to knock the leftovers unconscious. Zane had jumped on the leader, who in surprise, had dropped his knife and went down under the weight of Zane’s metal body. Cole broke out of his slight trance, and ran to tackle a guy who was about to put a knife in Lloyd’s back.   
Next to them, Kai had dropped onto the man holding Jay. However, unlike the leader, this guy didn’t go all the way down. The man shifted his weight back, mildly chocking Jay in the process. 

There was a short struggle, in which Kai got kicked in the stomach and several punches were thrown.

Zane had already tied the leader up. The guy really wasn’t that strong. He turned around to help the others when he saw the gunman shift his arm. His eyes went wide.

‘Jay, move!’ 

Jay turned his head to look at Zane, still not a hundred percent recovered from the sudden chance in atmosphere. From the corners of his eyes he caught sight of a finger, flexing to- 

Bang. 

Time stopped. Jay opened his eyes. He could see he was trembling but he couldn’t feel anything. Sound was weird. Is he dead? Or did the shot miss him in some sort of miracle? He looked up to see Kai, who had appeared in front of him, his face a mix of shock and terror. 

‘Are you okay?’ The fire ninja managed to ask.   
For a moment he wanted to say yes. The gun was gone, the owner of it too. He was safe. 

It was at that moment the pain hit him. And Jay screamed. He couldn’t focus on anything other than the nauseating pain anymore, on the intense burning spreading from his right shoulder. Someone was shouting. It sounded like how you hear things under water. 

‘Hey man, stay with me okay? I ‘ma get you out of here.’ He was vaguely aware of Kai ripping a piece of clothing and wrapping it around his shoulder. Jay was tired. He could only whine when the makeshift bandage was being pulled tighter around the wound. 

‘I’m sorry buddy. Please stay awake.’ 

Jay closed his eyes.

Kai was nearly in hysterics. Not only did he just see his friend get shot, he was well aware he could have caused Jay’s death. If he didn’t kick the gun in the split second it went off, or if he had kicked it the other way… He didn’t want to think about it.

He hoisted Jay in his arms. The others were just about finished rounding the remaining gang members up. He watched as Cole tie up the man with the gun, maybe rougher than necessary. Nobody called him out on it. 

Jay stirred in his grip and he was reminded of the literal bullet in the ninja in his arms. He looked around, searching for the Bounty, a vehicle, anything that could get them to a hospital.   
‘Wu is on the way with the Bounty!’ Zane’s voice came through the intercom. A few moments later a big shadow casted over the street, and a stretcher plus four ropes were basically thrown down. Nya frowned, and muttered something about doing some serious harm if she had to fix it again. 

Kai laid Jay down on the, by some miracle not broken stretcher and with the help of his sister he tied the ropes to the corresponding hooks.  
‘Ready to go!’ 

He held onto the ropes tightly as they were hoisted up. 

It was dead silent when Jay woke up. A weak ray of sunshine was peaking in through the curtains. Where was he? The last thing he remembered was being in someone’s arms. It might have been Kai who lifted him, Jay thought, he remembered something red. He opened his eyes. 

All the other ninja’s were there, sitting and standing around the bed he was in. The moment they noticed he had opened his eyes, all hell broke loose, again. 

‘What happened?’  
‘Why did you do that?’  
‘I swear when that guy comes out of prison I will kill him.’

It was all too much. Jay closed his eyes again and shook his head. Luckily Zane noticed his discomfort and told the others to calm down a little.  
‘Do you want us to go?’ Zane asked him softly. The other ninja were still firing questions left and right. 

Jay had too much of a headache to speak, so he just nodded. He heard the others leave the room, muttering among themselves. They were probably talking about him, but in all honestly he couldn’t bring himself to care. 

Just as he thought he was alone again, the voice of the black ninja popped up. So Cole had decided to stay. But no matter how much he might have liked the company, Jay’s head still hurt as hell. 

‘Are you alright?’

Jay groaned but nodded, not wanting to worry Cole even more, even if he couldn’t say it right then and there. He was feeling really tired. Weren’t they supposed to let him recover in peace?   
Apparently Cole was satisfied with his answer, and he didn’t ask any more questions. 

It was quiet again. Jay felt his body become heavy, and just before he drifted off, he could feel a warm hand covering his own.   
He fell asleep with a smile, knowing he was safe.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this!
> 
> This is my first story i've ever written on my own free will, i hope it's acceptable.  
> Sorry if there are any mistakes in my writing.
> 
> Leave a comment if you want,
> 
> Have a nice day!


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